Our
Lord obeys St. Joseph
Jesus
was subject to them. – St. Luke 2:51
How glorious to
Joseph is this dignity of father of Jesus Christ! By it he is constituted
master of the Saviour, and allowed to dispose of Him as a father disposes of
his son.
Jesus was the King
of Heaven, and yet Joseph had full authority over Him. He had a right to
command Him, because Jesus by becoming his son had voluntarily ceded His
liberty to him.
St. Joseph was served about thirty years by
Jesus Christ; he employed Him in his work shop just as a workman employs his
assistant, making Him share in his labors and fatigues.
Virtues
to be imitated in St. Joseph
His respect towards
Jesus, even in the exercise of his authority.
The mildness of his
commands.
His faith at the
sight of Jesus reduced to the condition of child and servant.
Prayer
Blessed Joseph,
would that I had the wisdom of the cherubim, and the zeal of the seraphim, to
celebrate worthily the dignity which gives thee the right of commanding Him
whom the angels adore with respect and trembling! I honor and revere this
incomparable dignity. I rejoice to see the Son of God attentive and submissive
to thy least signs. At the sight of an incarnate God, who places all His
liberty in thy hands, I cannot withhold offering thee the homage of mine;
dispose of it as thou wilt. In consideration of the humble obedience and the
divine services Jesus rendered thee as thy son, during so many years, in the
house of Nazareth, or as a workman in thy workshop, obtain that my will,
henceforth docile, may resist God no longer, nor those who take His place
towards me here on earth. Grant that, after thy example, I may command my
inferiors with humility, and seeing in them the person of Jesus Christ, that I
may treat them with charitable respect and attention. Amen.
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